On Sun, Nov 11, 2007 at 11:59:49AM +0100, Francesco Poli wrote:
> I'm not convinced that there actually is a problem.
I'm inclined to agree (though open to persuasion otherwise).
There seem to be two main positions one could take on this:
1. One could argue that objections to the ASP "loophole" come down
to a reluctance to accept the implications of the "no
restrictions on use" aspects of free software: "How dare people
make money out of the software I've written?"
2. Or one could argue that the AGPL and similar efforts are founded
on a visionary understanding (equivalent to RMS's insights of
the early 1980s) of how computing is going to develop over the
next few years, and a fear that without the AGPL a proprietary
software world could be rebuilt by default as more and more
software is used remotely.
But even if we take position #2, that still leaves the fundamental
problem as this: the AGPL makes it possible to add new and
incompatible licensing restrictions to GPLed software. It is therefore
a de facto threat to the GPL software ecosystem, as we could see more
and more useful software moving from the GPL world into the AGPL
world.
John
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